Do Canadian Landed immigrants need a transit visa to travel through the US?

If you hold a Nepali passport, and you are in Canada on a student or visitor visa, you must obtain a transit visa to travel through the US. Even permanent residents of Canada (similar to US green card holders) will need a transit visa.

We quote the immigration rule from the US State Department website:
"Permanent residents (aka landed immigrants) of Canada must have a nonimmigrant visa unless the permanent resident is a national of a country that participates in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), meets the VWP requirements, and is seeking to enter the U.S. for 90 days or less under that program."

Canadian citizens do not need a transit visa, however they will require proof of their identity and citizenship in order to gain entry into the US. For more on the document requirements to enter the US see the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative on the Customs and Border Protection website.

Citizens of Canada traveling to the US do not require a nonimmigrant visa, except if they are traveling for one of the purposes described below:

·

Foreign government officials (A), officials and employees of international organizations (G) and NATO officials, representatives and employees assigned to the U.S. as needed to facilitate their travel,

Treaty traders (E-1),

Treaty investors (E-2),

Fiancées (K-1),

Children of fiancées (K-2),

U.S. citizen's, foreign citizen spouse, who is traveling to the U.S. to complete the process of immigration (K-3),

Children of a foreign citizen spouse (K-4) described above,

Spouses of lawful permanent residents (V-1) traveling to the U.S. to reside here while they wait for the final completion of their immigration process,

Children of spouses of lawful permanent residents (V-2) described above.

For more information in Transiting the US see the transit section of the Customs and Border Protection website. The US Department of State – Travel, State. Gov, Website also has visa, embassy and travel information.

This question originally appeared on the Sajha site in March, 2007, and we responded then. As it’s a reappearing question at Zen, we are reposting it for benefit of Nepali passport holders.